1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object editing method, an object editing system for conducting an editing process including associating, connecting, erasing, separating with respect to an object displayed on the display apparatus, and a computer memory product in which a computer program is recorded for operating the system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A system is developed which can display on a display apparatus components of image information as objects, including drawing graphics of handwriting inputs, character strings of keyboard inputting, and so on, and can conduct an editing process such as moving, connecting, separating and erasing operations with respect to these objects on the display apparatus with the use of an input apparatus such as a mouse or the like by the user. This system is effective for progressing the proceedings in, for example, meetings. Each attendants' opinions and materials can be displayed on the display apparatus so that each participant can read commonly as information objects. The editing processes such as moving, combining, separating, and erasing can be conducted with respect to these objects, while discussing the displayed objects.
In the object editing system, a plurality of objects can be associated with each other. The collection of the objects related to the association can be handled similarly as one object so that the processes such as moving and erasing can be conducted. The conventional procedures of the associating operation (hereinafter referred to as grouping) among the objects are as follows.
The operation mode is set into a grouping mode, the object for grouping is selected, inputted one by one by the user, or the objects overlapped with a rectangular area inputted by the user are detected and selected by the software. Then, the grouping operation of the selected objects can be conducted by receiving the instructions of the selecting completion from the user.
Therefore, to move collectively one group of objects A, B and C, first, the objects A, B and C are grouped in the aforementioned procedure. Then, the operating mode is moved into a moving mode and the moving operation of the group composed of objects A, B and C are effected. But there is a case where objects which should have been collected into groups are not grouped in an actual operation immediately after the moving operation of the group of the objects. The group is necessary to be corrected after the moving operation. Although the moving operation of the group of, for example, the above described objects A, B and C meant to be effected, the objects C is not effected into the grouping actually, and the moving process is not effected with respect to the object C. In this case, the user should subsequently conduct the moving operation of the object C which should have effected and the object C is newly grouped. Or the processing results are restored into the condition before the moving operation of the group of the objects. The object C is grouped and the moving operation is newly conducted to obtain the desired processing results.
However, to effect the moving operation of the objects which should have grouped after the moving operation, the correct positioning operation is required for making the moving vector the same as that of the other objects already grouped, making the operation complicated to effect. Also, to effect the grouping operation after the undoing operation and effect the moving operation again, a moving vector similar to the moving operation before the undoing operation must be specified, thus making the operation complicated. Therefore, the grouping operation of the objects are desired to be simplified. Likewise, an operation of canceling the grouping operation of the objects and an operation of renewing the relative positional relation among the objects belonging to the groups are desired to be made simpler.
Also, in the object editing system, in the conventional combining process of the objects, a much more complicated procedure is generally required. For example in the Microsoft Word, the general literature editing application, there is a function of a text box for handing character strings as the objects. The following procedures (1) through (5) are conducted in the combination of the objects.
(1) A user selects a first object to be combined. PA0 (2) A user selects a "Copy" from among the function menu. PA0 (3) A user specifies a position for connecting the first object in a second object to be connected. PA0 (4) A user selects the "Paste" from the function menu. PA0 (5) The system connects the first object with the second object and conducts a displaying operation. PA0 (1) A user drags and drops (FIGS. 1A and 1B) with a mouse an object M to be moved for connection onto an object N to receive the connection. PA0 (2) The system connects the object M after the object N and displays them (FIG. 1C). PA0 (1) The user selects an object to be erased. PA0 (2) The user selects the "clear" from among the function menu. PA0 (3) The system erases the object.
Considering the user's operationality, it is desired to effect a connecting operation of the objects by the direct operation of the displayed objects without effecting the aforementioned menu operations. The present applicant proposes a new connecting operation of the objects. The connecting operation in this case includes the procedures of (1) and (2) as shown in FIG. 1.
In the connecting operation, it is only required to directly superpose an object on an object to be connected, in accordance with an operation suitable for the human sense. But the order in connecting the objects is fixed and the usefulness is insufficient.
The conventional example where the displayed object is separated is not known in the object editing system.
In the object editing system, the erasing operation of the displayed objects is conventionally effected with procedures of the following (1) through (3) in, for example, the aforementioned Microsoft Word.
Since even in the example of erasing operation, the menu operation is effected as in the above described connection operation, the operability for the user is not good. In the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-44006 discloses an example where the direct operation is conducted more effective than in the Microsoft Word. In the operating example, the user selects the area of the "erasing" function displayed on the screen with a pointing device to cause the pointing device to have an erasing function. When the pointing device sweeps the screen, an object involved in the sweeping operation is erased.
In the example, when an object is involved in the sweeping operation of the pointing device where the erasing function is assigned to the object disappears at a time. This is convenient for erasing an object. However, imagine that there are a user A effecting an erasing operation, and another user B looking at the erasing operation, and the user A is erasing the object as in the general blackboard erasing operation. To the user B, an object to be erased disappears at a time in the erasing manner shown by the system. The recognition of the user B cannot catch up with the erasing operation of the objects, thus giving the user B an unsatisfactory feeling.
In the general drawing process, a picture can be drawn while correcting it slightly. In this case, the user is used to the motion of erasing operation by scrubbing a desired area of the picture. However, in the object system, the erasing operation can be effected only in the unit of object, and the erasing operation often goes beyond the expected range. Further, objects once erased cannot be restored to the original objects. The redrawing operation is necessary to be effected again. The object system becomes worse in efficiency than the drawing process using paper and pencils.